A 63-year-old brothel receptionist summarily sacked via an intermediary after 15 years of "loyal" service in the "happy little family" workplace will receive near-maximum compensation, after a FWC ruling.
A property manager who returned home to down scotch and cokes with her sister following a panic attack during her working time has won $9,000 compensation, after the FWC found her real estate agent employer failed to establish that the hours-long drinking session coincided with her remotely accessing its IT system and deleting and forwarding her emails and other documents.
A union member acting as a maintenance contractor's health and safety representative has won interim reinstatement while the Federal Court weighs claims that the company sacked him for raising complaints about everything from silica dust exposure to welding fumes and fatigue management.
The FWC has found employer unfairly dismissed a worker when it cut his shifts after he took up work at a competing branch of the same franchise, because it wanted workers committed to the "awesomeness" of the business.
A transport company is to be referred to the FWO over its "alarming" indifference to its obligations as an employer, after an unfair dismissal case in which it exhibited "disregard" for the FWC before being ordered to pay $30,000 to a former worker sacked without warning.
An employer must pay more than $30,000 compensation to a manager sacked over suspicions that he was taking it for a ride over sick leave, a fact only revealed under questioning by a FWC member.
An employer failed to "adhere to basic standards of decency" when it made an employee on parental leave redundant in an email, without consultation, in "a case that exemplifies the benefits" of having some form of "keeping in touch" system during parental leave, the FWC has found.
A tribunal has ordered the reinstatement of a council worker found to have had a "brain snap" when he referred to his manager in a text as a "rude c--t" he felt like punching.
The Los Angeles-based HR manager for the Melbourne subsidiary of a Chinese hot pot chain did not apply enough rigour to investigating claims about a "knife-wielding" chef before sacking her for a second time, the FWC has found.
In a warning to employers about ambiguous drug and alcohol policies, the FWC has in a 50-page decision highlighted the "inadequacy" of a multinational company's code as being among the reasons for reinstating a wharfie sacked for cocaine use.
